US ambassador to Japan to skip Nagasaki memorial event over Israel snub

Embassy says the event has been 'politicised'

Doves fly over the Peace Statue during a ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the US atomic bombing in Nagasaki, southern Japan, in 2022. AP

US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will skip this year's atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki because Israel was not invited, the embassy said on Wednesday.

Mr Emanuel will not attend the event on Friday because it has been “politicised” and will instead honour the victims of the atomic bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, it added.

An atom bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more.

Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending the Second World War.

Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki said he had made the decision not to invite Israel based on “various developments in the international community in response to the continuing situation in the Middle East” that suggested a possible risk that the ceremony would be disturbed.

He said last week there was concern over “possible unforeseen situations” such as protests, sabotage or attacks on those in attendance.

Nagasaki hoped to honour the bombing victims “in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere”, he said.

Hiroshima, however, invited the Israeli ambassador to Japan to its memorial ceremony on Tuesday, with the 50,000 attendees also including Mr Emanuel and other envoys. Palestinian representatives were not invited.

Officials in Nagasaki said they had been told a representative from the consulate in Fukuoka would represent the US at Friday's ceremony, the Associated Press reported.

Five other Group of Seven nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the UK – and the EU are also expected to send lower-ranking envoys to Nagasaki.

A Nagasaki official in charge of the ceremony said it was “obviously better to have high-level individuals, like ambassadors themselves, taking part”.

“What is important is that representatives of the countries will attend the ceremony,” he told AFP.

Envoys from those nations and the EU signed a joint letter expressing their shared concern about Israel's exclusion, saying treating the country on the same level as Russia and Belarus – the only other countries not invited – would be misleading.

The envoys urged Nagasaki to reverse the decision and invite Israel to preserve the universal message of the city's ceremony.

British ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom, who attended the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on Tuesday, told Japanese media that she planned to skip the Nagasaki ceremony as the city's decision to exclude Israel could send a wrong message.

A representative for the French embassy said an official would be attending, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.

The EU ambassador will not take part “due to his agenda” and the bloc would be represented by a lower-level diplomat, a representative told AFP.

The German embassy told AFP that the head of its political division would attend, with the decision made “in light of the absences and availability” of senior embassy staff.